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Top Posts at Broker-Dealers See Big Changes

LPL's Bill Dwyer.

LPL Financial said recently that Robert Moore, president of its Advisor and Institution Solutions division, would be filling the shoes of Bill Dwyer, president of national sales, who planned to leave at the end of March to pursue other interests. By taking on this role, Moore will be “aligning the support of advisors across a single enterprise,” the company says.

Dwyer, based in Boston, has been with LPL since 1992. “He looked at the company and the great team he’s built … and said, ‘Others are ready to keep doing what I’m doing,’ ” said LPL CEO Mark Casady, in an interview. “He wants to do something different and will start with charitable work.”

Dwyer is set to become chairman of the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation later this year. Invest in Others was set up by LPL in 2006 to boost philanthropic and volunteer activities of financial advisors across the industry.

“Dwyer had a huge positive impact on LPL,” said Chip Roame, managing partner of the industry consulting group Tiburon Strategic Advisors, in an interview. “Todd Robinson, David Butterfield, Jim Putnam, Bill Dwyer and Mark Casady have all played huge roles, along with Esther Stearns, who is still there running new NestWise. It’s a great firm with great people and a deep management team. They will do well.”

Roame predicts that Casady could be next to retire, an idea that Casady contradicts. “I’m happily ensconced as CEO, vital and 52 and love what I do. I believe in our mission … and that’s what gets me up every day,” he said.

Industry recruiters, like Rick Peterson of Houston, say that Dwyer will certainly be missed. “He’s a terrific guy and fully capable and qualified of doing anything he likes,” Peterson said in an interview.

While Dwyer looks at charitable work and even starting a business or going back to school, Moore will have his hands full. Moore (right) joined LPL in 2008 from ABN AMRO North America and LaSalle Bank Corp., where he served as CEO.

In addition, LPL will say goodbye to Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer John McDermott, who’s decided to retire after almost 40 years in the broker-dealer business, including four years with LPL. While the company picks his replacement, McDermott will continue in his role.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley has confirmed that it hired the Merrill technology leader Chris Randazzo as head of technology for its wealth unit. Randazzo is filling in for Moira Kilcoyne. The company says that Kilcoyne is taking on “broader responsibility as COO of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management” and hence needs the IT support.

“As you know, we are making a $500 million investment in technology, above and beyond basic running costs, all aimed at enhancing the stability and functionality of our new 3D Platform,” said Greg Fleming, president of the wealth unit in a company memo. “We want our technology to be a competitive advantage … Our scale enables us to make this kind of investment, as well as continue to attract the industry’s most talented technology professionals to carry out our strategy.”

According to Fleming, Randazzo has close to 20 years of technology experience, most recently with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. Morgan Stanley is led by James Gorman, who came to the firm in early 2006, after being at Merrill from 2001 to 2005.

“As a technology leader, Chris has experience across all of the business segments that are strategically important to us: advisory, capital markets and banking/lending … ,” Fleming wrote. “He will join our Executive Committee and partner with all of our senior business leaders to guide our technology platform to the next level.”

Randazzo does not have a precise start date, though Morgan Stanley says he will come on board “in the near future.”

The IT merger of Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney attracted a fair amount of negative press in recent years due to the perceived slow, bumpy nature of the transition of Smith Barney reps to the Morgan Stanley platform. Some industry experts attributed the issues, at least in part, to the use of outside consultants.

The two firms came together via a joint venture in 2009: 51% owned by Morgan Stanley and 49% owned by Citigroup. In 2012, Morgan Stanley—which has been making a series of layoffs—bought another 14% of the venture and will wrap up the purchase of the remaining 35% stake over the next two years.

As of Dec. 31, the number of financial advisors in the wealth unit was 16,780, down 29 from the prior quarter and off 4% from last year’s tally of 17,512. Average annualized revenue per global representative was $824,000, an improvement of 4% from the prior quarter and 13% from last year.

Morgan Stanley said in mid-Monday that it had hired former-CNBC co-anchor Gary Kaminsky as vice chairman of its wealth-management unit. In this new role, Kaminsky will work with financial advisors on client relations and business development. Kaminsky has appeared regularly on “Squawk Box” and “Squawk on the Street.”

Before taking on the job as CNBC’s capital-markets editor in 2010, Kaminsky was a money manager at Cowen & Company from 1992 to 1999. After this, he then joined Neuberger Berman, where he was part of a team that managed a $12 billion portfolio until 2008.

“As an author and commentator, Gary speaks frequently on investor trends and asset management strategies, and he will continue to be a contributor to CNBC,” said Morgan Stanley President Greg Fleming in a memo.” Gary will be a valuable resource to FAs as they seek to grow, develop and manage their practices.”

Raymond James

Raymond James has announced that Vin Campagnoli was promoted to chief information officer for the company. Since joining the firm in 2011, he had been in charge of technology for the Private Client Group.

Campagnoli continues to report directly to Bella Allaire, executive vice president of technology and operations. The two IT veterans have worked together previously at UBS, Morgan Stanley and Prudential/Wachovia.

“With more than 25 years in the financial services industry focusing on increasing business productivity and efficiency through technology, Vin is uniquely qualified to further align Raymond James’ information technology with our businesses,” said CEO Paul Reilly in a press release.

“Honing our organizational structure to ensure we continue to deliver integrated, industry-leading tools that help our advisors serve their clients and grow their practices is a top priority,” Reilly added, “and Vin’s appointment will help ensure we deliver on that promise.”

Raymond James said last week that it had just wrapped up the successful IT integration of the Morgan Keegan operations, which the firm acquired last year. The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based broker-dealer says that over the 10-month integration, more than 500,000 client accounts were transferred from Morgan Keegan to Raymond James. To make this happen, Raymond James employees who were designated as conversion specialists were trained and deployed to about 100 branches.

“Vin’s appointment reflects the firm’s dedication to significant investment as we strive to become the industry leader in technology,” said Allaire, in a statement. “Our accomplishments in 2012 under Vin’s leadership were numerous, including launching Advisor Access, an innovative high-performing platform and central point of interaction with Raymond James technology for advisors.

Tim Eitel, Raymond James’ former CIO, will take on an advisory role. “We are very grateful for Tim’s leadership, rich history and almost 30 years of contributions to Raymond James and our technology,” noted Reilly.